All kinds of craziness

So much going on right now! I had a day in the ER yesterday and loved it. I had always thrown around the idea of ending up there but now I'm really confused. I love the chance to practice skills like foleys, IV's, blood draws, 12 lead EKG's and so on. Up on the floor, a lot of that is already done so you don't have as many chances to get good at those. I'm thinking of asking for ER for my preceptorship to get a good couple months in, then hopefully having my residency in a CCU or PACU area. I'm lucky that I will be starting my new job soon in the CVshort stay and will hopefully have an edge on getting into a good residency.
I've pushed back the goal of doing OR for now. I think it would be in my best interest to advance my skills in a critical care area, then I can always transition later into OR. I hear it's a lot harder going from OR to floor nursing as none of the skills are the same.
This week my research paper rough draft is due, my third theory test is on tuesday and I'm planning to try to get onto the official schedual at work then of coarse picking my patient and care plan on thursday and friday clinical.
Kids have been sick:( Daughter is getting better, but poor son has been throwing up since midnight. I hope he gets better soon, I feel so bad for him. (Early 6am run to the store for gatorade and pedialyte). Okay, back to studying!

Wow, I've been busy

Every day has been something, either at at the hospital completing all day orientations or I'm at school all day or I'm at the other hospital doing clinicals. But, the orientations will eventually be completed and I'll just work once or twice a week. I was incredibly lucky the other day. I was supposed to spend the day with I.V therapy, but they called my instructor and said they couldn't take a student that day. So, my instructor wasn't sure what to do with me so she asked the O.R if they could have a student that day! I was in heaven, I got to see a total knee replacement, and a total hip replacement. Soo, cool. I know I want to be in there after graduation and I can't wait.
Lots of studying and laundry to catch up on this weekend, have a good one!

Fighting this stupid cold!

Okay, I am sick of being sick. This cold has gone aroung the entire family several times now and I thought I had missed it this time around but I wasn't so lucky:( So anyways, here's what's been going on:

1)The Hospital gave me the official offer for the job and I've completed the background check paperwork, turned in my status approval paperwork to school, did my drug test and now am waiting for it all to come together. My biggest obsticle seems to be trying to fit in the mandatory all day orientations which just so happen fall on EVERY single test day I have at school! My teacher is willing to rearrange one test day for me but that's about it. I can't start work til they're done so it may take longer than I would like until I can actually begin.

2) The tiling is completely done in the bathroom, yea! It took a lot of spring break to finish it but with some help from hubby we got it done and should be grouting soon. I'll definitely post pictures.

3) Classes so far are okay, my theory class has a lot of complicated assignments but I'll figure them out as we go along. In fact since I didn't have clinical this first week I've been able o get most of my Unit reading done so I feel a little ahead.

4) My favorite cat Salina has been missing now for I think 7 days. I hate to say it but several days may have passed before I realized because we have other cates and because we've been super busy. I've been looking at the shelter websites but no luck.

That's all for now!

First Day Back

Today I'm beginning spring quarter, last year at this time I began nursing school and I can't believe I'm half way through! I'm always happy to begin a new quarter, with each one bringing me closer and closer to graduation. This quarter we are beginning advanced med surg so I'm a little intimidated but with lots of hard work hopefully I'll be fine.
Our class is having other lpn students join us this time around so our original group will be somewhat separated as there are several therory courses and eight different clinical groups. Fortunately I do have some of my good friends in my clinical groups and hopefully we will all keep in touch by doing group study sessions. Okay, I've got an orientation to get to, have a good day!

Got it!

Well I got the job, I can't believe it! I know it will be difficult to juggle everything but I know it will help reinforce what I'm learning in class. In other news. my sister has had some scary syncopal episodes yesterday with bradycardia down to 23bpm. She is stable now and being watched in the very same cardiac unit I was just hired in. very strange. Please send out a prayer for her that we find out what the problem was. Well, I'm gonna head back to the hospital and be with her. I'll update soon.

Spring Break

Yea !! I'm officially on spring break now and loving every minute of it. I had my final test on monday and I'm still waiting for the results to be posted. I'm pretty sure I did fairly well and I believe I might evan end up with an A in this class.
Today I started tiling the bathtub surround with my pretty subway tiles, Mom helped me a ton and now that we have one wall done I should be fine on my own tomorow. I can't wait till this bathrom is done! We did get the pedestal sink installed and it's so beautiful. When the whole thing is done I'll definitely post some pictures.
So remember when I was worrried about the job situation? Believe it or not I got an invitation to go interview for a nurse tech position at the local cardiac outpatient wing. It's brand new and has suites nicer than most people's houses. Each room has a private shower with fancy ceramic tile, and a large plasma TV on the wall in front of the bed. This place has new computors on every room and then there is a computor on the wall in the hallway about every six feet or so.
I hope this job works out, we'll see. I won't have tons of free time to work this quarter but I wanted to have something lined up and ready for the summertime.

Get to it!!!

I don't know about you but if I have lots of time to do something I will take forever, slowly getting around to it. Of course, If I have a deadline, I'm right on it. I think I work better under pressure. I've got just one test left and all week to study for it and I just can't seem to focus!
I guess my mind is just pre-occupied about things. Things are financially kind of rough right now and I wish I could just speed up graduation and get out there working!
I was talking to a recruiter from the nearby hospital and he was saying how there aren't as many nurse tech positions available as their used to be. He was also saying that hospitals down in Portland are having hiring freezes right now. Really scary for new grads. Alot of nurses that used to work on call are working full time because of spouses loosing their jobs, and people are putting off their retirement. This makes it hard for new grads to find good positions. I am hoping and praying that things work out and I guess it doesn't help anything to sit and worry about it.